Pace 2022 budget

[BusHunter]

Kind of interesting. I was reading about all the expansions they want to make. I learned some new things as well. The I-294 express bus corridor will be ran by pace southwest and pace south. Southwest will need an expansion. They will run iI-294 flex lanes similar to the I-90 project between balmoral and 95th. Theres talk of putting in station stops similar to rapid transit L service along all the corridors slated to become Pulse routes like cermak or 95th. They want to do a harlem/I-55 one as well. I think that is really smart and will boost demand. 

The electric buses they plan on spending 10 million on north garage improvements. They claim full implementation may not be until 2026. They also want to fund up to 50 million in future electric bus endeavors. So I dont know if that means future garages but in order to be electric by 2040 they would probably have to buy consistently. 

They dont really say when pace northwest-wheeling will open but it will be cng only so no diesels will run there at all. 

All in all if they can do all the things they say they will do they will have a very impressive service. They also want to get new fare boxes. They might actually be the bread winners of the rest of the country. This is how you run an agency. Very impressed with Pace. 

[NovaBusFan]

On 9/21/2021 at 11:52 AM, BusHunter said:

Kind of interesting. I was reading about all the expansions they want to make. I learned some new things as well. The I-294 express bus corridor will be ran by pace southwest and pace south. Southwest will need an expansion. They will run iI-294 flex lanes similar to the I-90 project between balmoral and 95th. Theres talk of putting in station stops similar to rapid transit L service along all the corridors slated to become Pulse routes like cermak or 95th. They want to do a harlem/I-55 one as well. I think that is really smart and will boost demand. 

The electric buses they plan on spending 10 million on north garage improvements. They claim full implementation may not be until 2026. They also want to fund up to 50 million in future electric bus endeavors. So I dont know if that means future garages but in order to be electric by 2040 they would probably have to buy consistently. 

They dont really say when pace northwest-wheeling will open but it will be cng only so no diesels will run there at all. 

All in all if they can do all the things they say they will do they will have a very impressive service. They also want to get new fare boxes. They might actually be the bread winners of the rest of the country. This is how you run an agency. Very impressed with Pace. 

PACE is just really interesting IMO, we have vans, coach buses and the expressway buses and now that they will soon work this out to get electric buses on the street around 2026 if that’s what it sounds like at some point in the years ahead. Fleet expansions also sound good as of now we have the EZ riders, El Dorados and the XD40s that PACE got last year. Before then we had the 35-ft and 40-ft NABIs and the Orion’s VIIs but those are retired. 

[NewFlyerMCI]

https://chi.streetsblog.org/2021/10/06/have-your-say-on-paces-2022-budget-which-includes-service-expansion-and-no-fare-increases/

Official discussion starting soon,

[BusHunter]

On 10/7/2021 at 9:15 AM, NewFlyerMCI said:

https://chi.streetsblog.org/2021/10/06/have-your-say-on-paces-2022-budget-which-includes-service-expansion-and-no-fare-increases/

Official discussion starting soon,

Was gonna link this, but I see you beat me to it. In this link they do say they will be getting 6 electrics to start with the balance completing in 2026. Man they do sound like Proterras, they are on thst same slow boat schedule. 

There are few other things to note dempster pulse will start next year with stations incomplete. Hey at least they have the service. 

Was surprised to learn they are just starting construction on the new pace nw. They are getting 51 cngs next year. I dont know where they are supposed to go with no garage. They will be needing buses for dempster pulse, but north shore and nw are gonna share operations of that route. They dont have cng facilities. Maybe the cng part will be built first unless they plan on pullouts from south. 

The flex lanes will ve coming online soon on 294, so they will also need that service. I suppose the 51 cngs could be for that since the service was supposed to be from south. Regardless there is alot of stuff going on this year. Gonna be an interesting year for them!!

[artthouwill]

8 minutes ago, BusHunter said:

Was gonna link this, but I see you beat me to it. In this link they do say they will be getting 6 electrics to start with the balance completing in 2026. Man they do sound like Proterras, they are on thst same slow boat schedule. 

There are few other things to note dempster pulse will start next year with stations incomplete. Hey at least they have the service. 

Was surprised to learn they are just starting construction on the new pace nw. They are getting 51 cngs next year. I dont know where they are supposed to go with no garage. They will be needing buses for dempster pulse, but north shore and nw are gonna share operations of that route. They dont have cng facilities. Maybe the cng part will be built first unless they plan on pullouts from south. 

The flex lanes will ve coming online soon on 294, so they will also need that service. I suppose the 51 cngs could be for that since the service was supposed to be from south. Regardless there is alot of stuff going on this year. Gonna be an interesting year for them!!

The I-294 is one big mess from 95th to Irving Park.   I don't see the TriState being completed for another 2 years.  Not only is the Mile Long Bridge being rebuilt, the tollway us being widened, a new interchange is being built near Grand for the new Western Access Tollway connecting the TriState to I-90 west of O'Hare  

The CNGS can probably be stored either at South or at the Acceptance center in South Holland. 

I don't understand why Dempster and=or Dempster Pulse would be shared by North Shore and Northwest 

  If NS  has the capacity,  it should run it, especially one Wheeling opens.  There's going to be a restructuring required as some routes that currently run from NW will need to shift to NS and vice versa. 

[NewFlyerMCI]

1 hour ago, BusHunter said:

There are few other things to note dempster pulse will start next year with stations incomplete. Hey at least they have the service.

What is it with Pace and not finishing a project before starting service? Pulse service is already watered down BRT, opening without the "stations" doesn't do anyone any favors. Might as well just finish everything, do the requisite QA/QC and then open with full service. Especially considering the "stations" are really one of the only selling points separating it from a glorified express bus (and that statement alone is doing a lot of lifting)

[BusHunter]

46 minutes ago, artthouwill said:

The I-294 is one big mess from 95th to Irving Park.   I don't see the TriState being completed for another 2 years.  Not only is the Mile Long Bridge being rebuilt, the tollway us being widened, a new interchange is being built near Grand for the new Western Access Tollway connecting the TriState to I-90 west of O'Hare  

The CNGS can probably be stored either at South or at the Acceptance center in South Holland. 

I don't understand why Dempster and=or Dempster Pulse would be shared by North Shore and Northwest 

  If NS  has the capacity,  it should run it, especially one Wheeling opens.  There's going to be a restructuring required as some routes that currently run from NW will need to shift to NS and vice versa. 

If 294 runs as good as it does in Lake county. That road will be awesome. Was reading about the mile long bridge. They intend to have 5 lanes plus a flex lane on the inner shoulder so that should move the traffic. It is pretty wide on the new bridge. On the nb side they are putting up the steel columns. Santa Fe road will have nightly closures this week. Was stopped on Lagrange at 2am yesterday for the rolling closures they have there. So basically its getting down to where they just need the concrete deck. I think they can squeeze that in before the brutal cold. 

York rd is closed at Foster. Looks like they will be constructing the bridge over york rd. So 494 is on its way. 

As far as Dempster Pulse, maybe they want to have pullins and outs from both east and west terminals. North shore will need expanding though. Some things they do almost feels like they are putting the cart in front of the horse. We'll see how it goes. 

I dont think they'll store the brand new cngs. One question that has come to my mind is what happened to all these #20300's delivery has just seemed to stop. Maybe they discovered all these cngs will displace 6400s for someone else, but I think they still need 60-70 eldorkos. Theres the 6700s at north too. I feel like they just bought buses to now say lets go cng and electric. Seems to be too early but they might be alright if they buy less 20300s. 

[BusHunter]

20 minutes ago, NewFlyerMCI said:

What is it with Pace and not finishing a project before starting service? Pulse service is already watered down BRT, opening without the "stations" doesn't do anyone any favors. Might as well just finish everything, do the requisite QA/QC and then open with full service. Especially considering the "stations" are really one of the only selling points separating it from a glorified express bus (and that statement alone is doing a lot of lifting)

They said they are having problems in a few station locations. Maybe someone is resisting or trying the block them. Milwaukee Pulse opened that way. Really theres not much to the stops, but you have all the opposing suburbs. I want it this way, I want it that way. In time it will sort out. 

I dont know how they want to go about building a dempster pulse ohare transfer stop. There still is no people mover. Some things lightfoot has done makes you wonder is she incompetent or what. How come we got to wait 3 years for this? That may be the one thing the Proterras beat out as far as speed. 

[artthouwill]

3 hours ago, BusHunter said:

They said they are having problems in a few station locations. Maybe someone is resisting or trying the block them. Milwaukee Pulse opened that way. Really theres not much to the stops, but you have all the opposing suburbs. I want it this way, I want it that way. In time it will sort out. 

I dont know how they want to go about building a dempster pulse ohare transfer stop. There still is no people mover. Some things lightfoot has done makes you wonder is she incompetent or what. How come we got to wait 3 years for this? That may be the one thing the Proterras beat out as far as speed. 

As incompetent as Lightfoot is,  I can't pin the ATS fiasco on her since the process began under Rahm Emmanueel.  

[MetroShadow]

It would beg the question of whether or not the North Shore/Northwest Restructuring will be happening next year. If you have a fixed amount of buses with limited chance of the feeders coming back to Lake Cook, then the only other option (and also assuming Wheeling isn't done), the Restructuring. 

So if Dempster is coming online, I'd imagine it would be summer 22.

[BusHunter]

15 hours ago, MetroShadow said:

It would beg the question of whether or not the North Shore/Northwest Restructuring will be happening next year. If you have a fixed amount of buses with limited chance of the feeders coming back to Lake Cook, then the only other option (and also assuming Wheeling isn't done), the Restructuring. 

So if Dempster is coming online, I'd imagine it would be summer 22.

They were mentioning Pace was going to announce what routes will come back as part of the reinstatement of post covid closures. That happens on the 20th according to the article. Perhaps they are not bringing a few routes back and have room for a small expansion although some would say its a restructuring. 

I was just kind of surprised the plainfield garage had its first shovel of dirt thrown in the last week or so. It makes you wonder what have they been doing all this time.

[busfan2847]

23 hours ago, BusHunter said:

Seems to be too early but they might be alright if they buy less 20300s. 

There does not seem to be a need for more 20300s except in the Fox Valley communities. I doubt that the needs for commuter buses to Metra is likely to return any time soon!

[BusHunter]

10 hours ago, busfan2847 said:

There does not seem to be a need for more 20300s except in the Fox Valley communities. I doubt that the needs for commuter buses to Metra is likely to return any time soon!

Certain areas do need the eldorkos like Niles or Highland pk as well as the fox valley areas. But they could use them in areas that have low ridership. #696 if brought back is one of those routes. Running cngs at nw will eliminate some of those routes unless they ran them out of river. 

Another thought if ns does part of dempster pulse I guess it wont have all cng buses. At least the milwaukee pulse buses have somewhere to go. That may be the rationale behind both garages doing dempster pulse.